‘The Content Machine’ outlines a theory of publishing that allows publishers to focus on their core competencies in times of crisis. This ground-breaking study, the first of its kind, fuses history, media theory and business experience in a defiant answer to those who contend that publishing has no future in the digital age.

This ground-breaking study, the first of its kind, outlines a theory of publishing that allows publishing houses to focus on their core competencies in times of crisis. Tracing the history of publishing from the press works of fifteenth-century Germany to twenty-first-century Silicon Valley, via Venice, Beijing, Paris and London, and fusing media theory and business experience, ‘The Content Machine’ offers a new understanding of content, publishing and technology, and defiantly answers those who contend that publishing has no future in a digital age.

Acknowledgements; Introduction: Useful Middlemen; Chapter 1: The Problem of Publishing; Chapter 2: The Digital Context and Challenge; Chapter 3: How Content Works; Chapter 4: The System of Publishing; Chapter 5: Models; Chapter 6: Addressing Problems, Meeting Challenges; Conclusion: Inside the Content Machine; Bibliography; Index